From fear to love

A lot of us learned our faith with a sentence underneath it that nobody said out loud but everybody understood: if I don’t love God, I go to hell.

That sentence works, for a while. It gets people to church, gets them to pray, keeps them from some things. But try loving anyone under a threat. You can obey someone you’re afraid of. You can’t really love them, because fear keeps measuring the distance between you.

Scripture — 1 John 4:18–19 (OTB)

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love Him only because He first loved us.

Fear is a beginning, not a home

Notice what John doesn’t say. He doesn’t say fear is wicked, or that anyone who ever feared God has it all wrong. Fear has to do with punishment, and for many of us fear is what first made us take God seriously. That counts for something.

But fear isn’t where God means the relationship to end. Perfect love casts out fear. The more you know how He actually loves you, the less room there is for the dread.

Look at the order

Read verse 19 again. We love Him only because He first loved us.

Love for God isn’t something you manufacture and then present to Him. It’s a response. He moves first. He loved you before you feared Him, before you needed Him, before you thought about Him at all. Your love is what happens when that finally lands.

That changes the whole project. You don’t have to produce a feeling. You have to come to know the One who loved you first.

The road

Here’s the road this class walks. Nobody skips a step, and none of them is to be despised:

Fear → Need → Knowing → Trust → Love

Fear brings us to God. Need keeps us coming back. As we come, we start to know Him. Knowing Him, we learn to trust Him. And trust, given time, grows into love.

Where are you on that road today? You don’t have to be further along than you are. You just have to keep walking.

Finish the sentences

Take a minute and finish these honestly:

• When I’m afraid, I come to God because…
• When I have a need, I seek God because…
• I want to get to where I seek God because…

Recite this

Fear brought me to God. Knowing Him is what keeps me near.

Try it this week

Read 1 John 4:7–19 twice this week, slowly. Then say back in your own words what it says about how God loves. Notice anything it says about fear.

I will read it on ________________, and I will tell ________________ one thing I noticed about how God loves.